There's a room at the West Bromwich Albion training ground that houses several thousand DVDS.

It's like a footballing version of a high street lending library - minus the Rom-Coms, Horrors and Thrillers.

Some of the discs are games, most of them are of players - some of whom might be potential targets. A few will be pursued, many will not. It’s a vast database that’s before the very nose of anyone given access to that particular inner sanctum of Albion’s HQ.

Richard Garlick has been aware of their content since joining the club as a legal director some two-and-half-years ago. He’s also been a confidante to the Albion board, the club’s outgoing sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth and head coach Steve Clarke.

So, although Garlick’s appointment as Ashworth’s replacement came as some surprise to many, it does have a certain logic.

Garlick has assumed the ST&D role in a designate capacity before Ashworth leaves to become the Football Association’s head of elite development in the coming months.

He, like Ashworth has, will look after the four key departments at the club - sports science, academy, first team and player recruitment.

The obvious question is why a man with no obvious coaching or footballing pedigree has been chosen to assume the role.

Garlick explained the process of his appointment and why - though it might not be deemed logical to the outside world - smacks of common sense within Albion’s control room.

“Dan and I come from different backgrounds but my view is that Dan took this role five or six years ago and molded it and tailored it,” Garlick told the Birmingham Mail.

“We found it was always going to be difficult to replicate what Dan had built because it was organic and grown within the business. It was always hard to find someone who ticked every box.

“We were never going to find a sports scientist who had an academy background and was into recruitment and had negotiation skills to deal with players. That was impossible, which is what caused us to go back and look at what is important to us as a club - someone who understands the club.

Dan Ashworth

“I’ve worked with Dan for two-and-a-half years. We sit next to each other, we talk to each other, call each other, email each other.

“When Dan handed his notice in we had a chat to look at criteria: what kind of skills we needed to replace Dan. We had a chat and I said that if we were looking down route of someone who had legal or contractual skills - as many people have in football administration - then I’d be interested in putting my hat in the ring.

“We then went through a process of what was in the market. Then in mid-December I got a call from Dan asking me to go to the stadium to meet him and Mark (Jenkins, chief executive) which frightened the life out of me as I initially imagined some catastrophe had happened!

"I wasn’t privy to the conversations but it was a pleasant surprise and something I got my head around.”

Replacing Ashworth was deemed perhaps even more critical than finding Roy Hodgson’s successor last year.

Ultimately, as successful as Ashworth, his role also carried widely ill-conceived views - notably that he was some form of ‘super scout’ whose departure would end any notion of Albion finding the next Claudio Yacob or Youssouf Mulumbu.

That perception is a misnomer.

Recruitment - which, let’s face it, is what people reading this piece care about most - comes from is effectively a network of scouts. The final ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on, say Albion’s next right-back, will remain the domain of whoever’s name is above the door marked ‘head coach’.

Garlick has no intention of reinventing the club.

“I’m not pretending to be something I’m not,” he added.

“A good friend of mine is a head teacher. But he’s not a maths teacher so he doesn’t go in and pretend to be a maths expert or go in and take maths classes, but what he does is ensure that department and the maths teacher has everything they need to succeed to make the best out of what they can do. That’s how I see my role.

“There is a whole team of people around Dan. In the recruitment department there is a whole network of scouts, with a pyramid up to where decisions are made. There is a whole team of people who contribute to that.

“Dan picks that up and takes it in a direction where he would question it or challenge it. The same with the first team - we have a long list of coaches, from Steve, Dean (Kiely), Kevin (Keen), Keith (Downing) right down to the academy. It’s not a one-man band.

“It’s being able to communicate and work with that team. I see the role as creating an environment where those people can succeed, be it medical and sports science, player recruitment, be it academy.

“My job will be to make sure they operate correctly. We’re in a great position as a club from a playing point of view, from a financial point of view, from a structural point of view so we have a great basis to move on. We’re not about to rip everything up - it’s about ensuring we stay ahead of the curve, so we stay in the top half of the league, add onto that, build and compete up there rather than anywhere else.”

Garlick continued: “I will be part of that recruitment process but it will be calibrated differently. I will watch games, have some say in the players we’re signing and that department will still be brought to me.

“We will make sure we are 100 per cent right. If we make a purchase we try to de-risk it, so if I’ve looked at it, Steve has looked at it, scouts have looked at it, the more people buy into it, the more chance we have of these players being successful.”

Garlick is willing to embrace the demands the job will inevitably bring.

And he expects to continue his strong relationship with Steve Clarke.

"From day one I was sat on the interview panel which interviewed Steve," he added.

"I looked at the candidates we had and I was part of that process - so I've known Steve from the moment we interviewed him, I see him every day, we have lunch in the canteen, we have a coffee, we have a very good working relationship. That is important for me that he buys into the way we work. He was more than comfortable of him working with me in this role which was a big plus.

"I've seen the pressures of this job - for instance when we decided to let Robbie (Di Matteo) go - so I see how situations manifest themselves.

"I've seen when things don't go right on the pitch. I've also seen when we've beaten Arsenal 3-2 at the Emirates, or seen it when George Thorne breaks into the team. I've dealt with pressure all my life - even in my legal back ground when training solicitors, there was a pressure to improve and to keep pushing yourself and achieve new ambitions. I work better under pressure.

"When the pressure isn't on you can become lazy or complacent.

"I appreciate there is no honeymoon period in football. I'm very excited about driving this forward.

"I'm an ambitious young man. I could have sat back and enjoyed my legal director role but this is something I am determined to succeed in and continue Dan's work."